June 9, 2020

Opposition parties, including the Japanese Communist Party and the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, on June 8 jointly submitted a bill on sexual harassment.

The opposition-drafted bill aims to prohibit sexual harassment in all situations at work so that not only workers, including self-employed and freelance workers, but also job-seeking students can be protected.

The bill stipulates that employers have the responsibility to properly respond to sexual harassment allegations, provide necessary information to the victims, and take other appropriate action. The bill also calls on the national and local governments to implement policies, including the establishment of systems to give the victims support and free counselling services. It also calls for the creation of guidelines which include concrete examples of sexual harassment. In addition, the bill requires that steps be taken to ban all types of harassment at work in line with the ILO’s anti-workplace harassment convention.

After the bill submission, representatives of the opposition parties held a press conference. JCP lawmaker Motomura Nobuko referred to the fact that even the World Bank pointed out that among high income OECD countries, Japan is the only nation failing to protect women from sexual harassment. Motomura expressed her determination to change the situation with the enactment of the bill.

Past related articles:
> Job-seeking students demand end to sexual harassment during job-hunting process [December 3, 2019]
> Pushed by JCP, Labor Ministry steps up measures to prevent sexual harassment of job-hunting students [July 7, 2019]
> ILO’s anti-workplace harassment convention tool to protect human dignity: Zenroren vice chair [July 4, 2019]